Memento
by Izzu
Summary: Raiga was reminded of an important memory of his mother.


A/N: Been wanting to write this anyway.

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Memento

by Izzu

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Kinda surprising how times like this tend to make him recall some of his fond memories. Since most of the times, he could barely recall them so easily. Not like it was a surprise though, he had been a child then. So many years between then and now, he can't always remember everything. But somehow, he was glad that_ this_ memory was amongst those that still remained fresh to him.

He could still recall it; many years ago, when he had sneaked into the storage room and rummaged into a box of old things belonging to his parents. Gonza told him that the old mansion had been destroyed before so many of the family belongings had lain scattered all over the compounds. Some of the things and furnitures have been wrecked, and some of them that weren't destroyed had been kept. And luckily, most of the family personal belongings managed to be recovered. Those belongings, include many of his mother's drawings.

xxx

After the new mansion was rebuilt, many of the things recovered from the ruins of the old mansion have been put back into the new one. But some of those were still stored inside the storage room in boxes.

He always loved looking though those boxes. It was his other favourite things to do aside from listening to Gonza's stories. And this particular time... he managed to find an old drawing that he never seen before. His mother's drawing... of course, since he knew her drawing style. Considering he kept perusing the children book his mother had published. Her drawing style was slightly different than his maternal grandfather's; then again his mother had more shares of seeing mythical creatures in her days.

Anyway, this drawing wasn't being framed like the other ones he's seen hung all over the mansion. And it was drawn on an ordinary paper as well. There was a slight stain on the edges of the paper, but mostly... the drawing was intact.

Eagerly, he ran towards downstairs to see his mother who happened to be home as well. They had a visitor that day; it was one of those makai priests that has helped his father during his past missions.

"Mother... mother, look what I've found!" cried Raiga as he ran to her lap. "Pretty drawing!"

Kaoru smiled as she recognised the old drawing. The priest also turned to look, and smiled.

"Kaoru-san! Was this the drawing you made for Kouga-san?"

His mother smiled bashfully. "Yes, it was. Aaah, how nostalgic...!"

"What is this creature, mother? Have you seen it before? It's that why you drew it?"

His mother glanced up at the man as the priest shrugged. "You can tell him, Kaoru-san. It's already passed after all."

She laughed. "I thought you would want to tell it to Raiga. After all, if it wasn't for you... I wouldn't be able to see the spirit beast by myself."

Uncle Leo shook his head. "Nah, I'm not good at telling stories. Kaoru-san did it better than me anyway, you've always made it sound so magical. I'll just... go find Kouga-san and maybe have a bit for practice fight with him. It's been a while after all."

"Go along, then. Kouga should be training at the backyard around this time," she said as Raiga watched the man walked away. He turned back towards his mother as Kaoru started smiling brightly.

"Should I tell you now?" she asked as Raiga grinned excitedly.

"Please do! But mother... what did Uncle Leo have to do with this drawing? And what's a... spirit beast?"

Kaoru grinned. "Well, Raiga... you know those Makai brushes that Uncle Leo, Shiguto, Aunty Jabi and Rekka used to do their spells?" she asked as Raiga nodded rapidly. "Well, those were made using the fur of the spirit beast."

"Oooh..." sighed the child in awe as Kaoru continued.

"I happened to stumble to Leo on his way to find the spirit beast... and after hearing about it, of course I insisted to tag along..."

xxx

"And so, I held out my paint brush and let it be blessed by the beast. An image appeared on my mind as the spirit beast passed by me. Leo said, that if I draw the beast's image using the paintbrush that has just been blessed by beast... I should give it to the person that appeared in my mind. Then, the person would also be blessed as well."

Raiga's eyes widened. "Then... that person... is father?" asked the child as Kaoru nodded. Both mother and son giggled as they thought fondly of their favourite makai knight. And then something crossed his mind as he turned towards his mother.

"Then, mother... you said you drank an elixir to let you see thing usually cannot be seen. What other things did you see, then?"

His mother sighed. "Hmm... some magical beings, I suppose? Personations of the good ki and bad that were all around us? That's what your uncle Leo told me. Well, different people would see different things, I guess. It's not like they stayed the same. And one moment, we stumbled past a great accumulation of dark ki. That was scary."

"The drawing you did was pretty, mother. I wished I could see the spirit beast also with my own eyes."

Kaoru smiled again and placed a kiss on her son's forehead.

"I wish that you'll get that chance also some day..."

xxx

How he wished to tell his mother that he managed to have that wish granted now. How he wished he could see her and his father again... now. He missed them both... so very much. If only he could find out what actually has happened to them. And to know if they were still safe... wherever they are now.

"Raiga? Is something wrong?" asked Mayuri as Raiga shook his head.

"Nothing. I just remembered something very precious to me."

With that, both of them continued on their way back home. And when they reached home, Raiga mused; he needed to find back that old sketch and give it a proper frame of its own...


End file.
